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if you want to earn money using your
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freeze dryer or you have a business
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using your freeze dryer and you just
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want to know how do I start shipping my
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product to customers to earn that
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additional money well in this video I'm
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going to share with you my point of view
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perspective from owning a freeze drying
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business in Idaho my company's called
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freeze dry Depot and I've been running
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it for over four years one of the things
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I had to quickly learn was how do I ship
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this delicate type of product like
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freeze-dried ice cream freeze-dried
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candy freeze-dried fruit because when
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you dry it in the freeze dryer it
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becomes really really delicate wondering
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kind of what type of boxes to use to
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ship your product as well as any packing
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material like crinkle paper or peanuts
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things like that to keep this product
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from crushing is vital to your business
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so that you keep having returning
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customers and people give you good
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reviews now today we're going to talk
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about mainly the shipping and
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fulfillment side of your freeze dried
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product because now that you actually
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have packaged it up just like I have
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with this freeze-dried ice cream now
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it's time to ship it to someone that you
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may not even know and that's a good
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thing right because you're expanding
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your customers you're probably shipping
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out of state speaking of that if you're
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wanting to ship instate most of the time
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that's covered under a commercial
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kitchen license that you can get through
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your state or your county something like
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that I've got plenty of videos that talk
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about that how it's ran in Idaho but
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it's very different in different states
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if you want to sell Interstate meaning
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you want to sell outside of the state
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that you're currently processing your
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product then you're going to want to
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look at more of an FDA processing
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facility sometimes commercial kitchen
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laws are applicable to be able to sell
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out of state you just want to check with
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your state laws to see if you can ship
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food products from a commercial kitchen
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or if you have to have some type of FDA
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facility okay so how do you get started
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with selling online well there's a lot
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of different Market places nowadays to
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sell your product when I started my
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business in 2020 I went with Etsy
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because that's where I found most of the
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freeze-dried product existing on sale
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and in fact in 2020 when I started my
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business there was only 10 stop selling
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freeze-dried products now I can't even
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believe how many different pages and
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listings there are for freeze-dried
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products but don't let that discourage
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you that just tells you that a lot of
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people are selling products and I'm
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still getting orders today from Etsy in
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fact I've got six orders today three
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from Etsy and three from my website that
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I use Shopify to do all that and if
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you're not familiar with all these
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different platforms they make it really
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easy to be able to ship your product
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they process the order they give you
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ways to put photos of your product they
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give you all the different types of
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shipping rates so you really don't have
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to do a whole lot of calculations with
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that there are a lot of different
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shipping platforms to go through you can
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go through pirate ship you can go
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through Shopify Shopify has a discounted
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rate for the Post Office for FedEx for
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ups and you can also go through some
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other different channels needless to say
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there's a lot of platforms to go through
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to sell your product choose one that's
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most comfortable that you know so if you
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really know Facebook and you really know
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Instagram and that's where you are so
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you can kind of look at different
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accounts that are already selling on
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there then go with those and start
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learning how the process of purchasing a
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product goes and that way you can know
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how to sell on that platform I'm going
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to keep this a little bit more raw
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footage just so I don't have to do a
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whole lot of editing just so I can show
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you what I do for some of these
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packaging and fulfillment on my side of
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the business and one of the things that
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makes it really easy for me because I
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also have my nephews that help me do
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fulfillment is I print off these packing
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sheets now these packing sheets you can
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do on Etsy you can also do it through
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Shopify Shopify is the e-commerce sort
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that I have through my website and so
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when you print off a packing sheet it
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actually gives you what types of
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products came with the order the packing
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slip for Etsy looks very similar to the
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one here it just doesn't include any
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photos but it does include the
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description so I know that this one is
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freeze-dried cookies and cream ice cream
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so that's what I know what to pack into
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the box now you don't have to do this
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this is just what I do I'm still a small
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business and when you're starting you're
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still going to be that too there's a lot
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larger freeze drying businesses than me
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but this will give you an idea of what a
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small business is doing and where you
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can start out as well when I started
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this business I wanted to have the right
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types of uh boxes and one of the things
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that was important for me was that I
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didn't want to package it in some of
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those uh those plastic envelopes that
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has some bubble wrap because I've worked
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for UPS and FedEx in the past back in
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college and I knew what I was doing at
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3:30 in the morning throwing them on the
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FedEx trucks and UPS trucks and so I
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wanted to have something more durable
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like boxes does this box cost more than
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that yes it does this is about a dollar
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a box 80 cents a box it just depends on
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how many boxes I'm willing to buy in
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bulk I buy these from Uline and you can
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also go to maybe your local Container
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Store your local boxing store and see if
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they have returned boxes they can't sell
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anymore new maybe you can find them a
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little bit cheaper this is expensive but
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fulfillment uh and handling fee on all
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my online orders so I sell my
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freeze-dried ice cream for $12 a bag but
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I also add $150 to the order on top of
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the shipping because I want to cover my
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box cost as well as some of the packing
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material so free shipping free shipping
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and handling that's something that you
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see a lot of you get to control what you
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want to do for me I you know I just pass
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that along to the customer because for
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me I just can't incur those those costs
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as a small business I you know if I had
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them more in bulk then maybe I could if
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you're watching this for the first time
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and you're interested in freeze drying I
5:50
want to welcome you and encourage you to
5:52
subscribe to this channel because you'll
5:54
be notified of all different types of
5:55
videos that I come out with about
5:57
running a freeze drying business you can
5:59
also go to to the video description and
6:00
check out Freez drs.com and enter your
6:03
email address you'll be added to my
6:05
email list that I email two to three
6:07
times a week and provide tips and tricks
6:09
and industry news about the freeze
6:10
drying industry now as you can see here
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I've got my unfolded boxes and then the
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finished folded box now you don't have
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to have a folded box you can have more
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of a a box that is you know when when
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you normally you fold it you put the
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tape around it or you can have more of a
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multi-fold type of box this type of box
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right here I literally just fold in I
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had to learn how to do this
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quickly and then you make the box and
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then it folds down like this and then
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creates the lid and voila you've got
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your box now when you're starting your
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business you're going to have to figure
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out how many packages you can fit in one
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of these boxes I just had to buy these
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boxes off of Uline I had to figure out
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okay I've got these bags that I fill um
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you know freeze-dried Skittles fit
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differently in here these are kind of
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more bulk so it has a little bit larger
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volume so this size box can fit up to
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two then when I have three to five
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products purchased off my website or
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Etsy I have another box and then from
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six to all the way to 10 different bags
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of product I have another box as well
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now as a business owner you get to
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choose how you want to fulfill and
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purchase these types of boxes I'm just
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sharing you what's kind of worked for me
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for the past four years let's go through
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fulfillment of two of my six orders so
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you can kind of see what I'm doing to
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get it out the door to the post office
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today so what I'm going to look for is
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i' I know I've got an order for two
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cookies and cream ice cream here and
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then also they wanted strawberries I'm
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going to put that order right here the
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packing slip that was from Etsy and then
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I've got this one right here and he
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wanted some freeze-dried cookies and
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cream ice cream so we're already going
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to use this box now I stamp I try to
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stamp my boxes to create some branding
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because when this arrives to the
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customer I want them to know hey I did
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order from freeze dry Depot and here's
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the order so we're going to put that bag
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in here and now we're going to close it
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up try to show you I'm going to close it
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up like this and then we'll be ready to
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tape this and now that it's closed up
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now we can put the packing slip on here
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so I'm going to associate the name with
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the packing slip so I know it's the
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right person again a lot of these
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e-commerce platforms they already have a
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way to get your shipping labels printed
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with all the customer information and
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everything now one thing to know about
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uh shipping labels is you can use a
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thermal printer I've got some videos
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about what type of thermal printers I
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would suggest I've always used the Rolo
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printer you can print off a lot of
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labels so if you're fulfilling and
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you're having a great month and you just
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need a lot of shipping labels printed
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then you can just use that and it comes
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with all the sticker pack for over 500
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different stickers that then you just
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feed into the feeder of that thermal
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printer you don't have to replace it
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with ink it's really easy so that's what
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I use and if you want to buy that you
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can use some of the affiliate links on
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my uh Amazon store to buy that Rolo as
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well as some other ones that I would
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suggest all right this one is all
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processed now we just need to tape it up
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and you'll just have to kind of figure
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out your method for tape I buy all this
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tape from Amazon I buy it from Staples
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all of that I do tape two sides just
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because I want to be safe so that you
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know nothing really comes into contact
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with the box and there we go there is a
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freeze dry Depot shipped product that we
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just need to now go out to the post
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office now let's do another one and I'll
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share with you the whole process here
9:40
again this particular order had three uh
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items the two cookies and cream ice
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cream and one strawberry now if you're
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in cottage food you can do this all from
9:53
your house also if you're in commercial
9:55
I'm packaging all this stuff up in my
9:58
commercial kitchen because you know it's
10:00
it's requires uh food handling things
10:02
like that but you can fulfill everything
10:05
at a different location so that's what
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you just need to remember so again this
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is my larger box that I ship three to
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in and I buy my crinkle paper this is
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the packing material that I use for my
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packages and I put it right in the Box
10:25
just a whole handful um sometimes you
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can pull the sprinkle paper apart and it
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kind of creates more volume uh and more
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of like a cushion but the reason you
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want to use packing material is because
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this is delicate product especially
10:39
freeze-dried gummy bears freeze-dried
10:42
gummy worms and Jolly Ranchers things
10:44
like that uh you don't want these things
10:46
to get crushed uh in transit so if you
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want to look at crinkle paper you can go
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to Amazon I've got links in the video
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description you can also uh go to Uline
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and there's a link in the video
10:58
description as as well there um the
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thing about Uline is they charge a lot
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of money for shipping because it's in
11:04
Freight so you kind of have to have a
11:06
large order to get free shipping
11:10
possibly from them I think it's over
11:11
$500 something like that um or just make
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it worthwhile so that when they ship to
11:16
you you've got a lot of product and
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that's what I used to do I'm just doing
11:19
less volume now um than when I had seven
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freeze dryers so uh this is the this is
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the order right here see how present
11:26
presentable this looks if you wanted to
11:28
you could put some more crinkle paper on
11:30
top but this is going to allow less
11:32
movement when it's in transit now
11:34
already I'm forgetting something I
11:35
forgot to put my stamp of my business
11:38
right here so let's go ahead and stamp a
11:40
different box so we're going to stamp
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here and now we've got freeze dry
11:46
Depot on the box now one thing that I
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didn't include on this is I didn't
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include my business card which I
11:53
normally do I'm just waiting for the
11:55
business cards to come in because I've
11:57
got an event coming up and so I printed
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off more from zazzle.com where I do my
12:04
business cards and so that's a good way
12:06
to get more marketing into here uh for
12:08
your business now the only thing that's
12:10
missing right now is the shipping label
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so we just need to make sure I get the
12:14
right person here which is right here
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this this is going to Katie Texas so
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that's the nuts and bolts of what goes
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on with my business when I'm shipping my
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freeze-dried product again what you need
12:28
first is what are you going to put your
12:30
product in so you need to decide whether
12:32
you're going to do bubble packaging
12:34
whether you're going to do boxes what
12:36
are you going to ship the product in
12:37
secondly is how are you going to ensure
12:40
that that freeze-dried product that is
12:42
very delicate is going to be going to
12:44
that customer and arriving in its
12:46
original state and not crushed to powder
12:49
right you want that impression on that
12:51
customer that you don't really know but
12:53
purchased and trusted you to ship that
12:55
product so find either crinkle paper
12:58
Maybe it's peanuts maybe it's crumpled
13:01
up uh construction paper I would make
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sure that you incur that cost in your
13:05
business of shipping and handling
13:07
because you don't want to have that
13:09
customer receiving a crushed product the
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other thing you're going to need is you
13:13
need a website or some type of platform
13:16
to be able to process your e-commerce
13:18
online orders I use Shopify I use Etsy
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you can check out all of my different
13:23
links to those through my business
13:25
freeze depot.com as well as the links in
13:28
my YouTube channel and also you need a
13:30
printer to print off all these so make
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sure you check out my video description
13:34
and my Amazon store for the thermal
13:35
printers that I use now maybe you have
13:37
lingering questions about running a
13:39
freeze drying business specifically
13:41
maybe about how to package your product
13:43
how to print off labels the right
13:45
printers that we talked about here I've
13:47
got a couple videos coming up next that
13:48
are related to this type of side of
13:50
running a freeze drying business I'll
